12 Point Buck

To examine nature, is to examine culture. The implication is that any contact
with nature is mediated by the rhetorical constructs of art, industry,
religion, and education (Wilson, 1991: 12). There is no stepping out into the wilds without post card
images, poetry, lawns and gardens crowding in and shaping our interaction.

But perhaps what influences this relationship most
profoundly is our longing to do just that, to experience something artless,
profound, fundamental, and free.
It is our goal to explore this sense of yearning as well the complex
terrain that inspires it. Our
desire is a sort of nostalgia for the subject, and the narratives we construct
are an attempt to create a fulfilling relationship with our muse.

Nostalgia is a bit of a dirty word and we don’t use it
lightly. It has been described as a “social disease” (Stewart, 1993: ix) and it
is frequently painted as an escape hatch from the realities (and the
responsibilities) of daily life.
This is far too simplistic a dismissal of a curious and historically
shifting phenomenon. Here we use
nostalgia to describe an emotion that is not so much about the past as it is
the tool we use to remember the “unrealized dreams of the past and the visions
of the future that became obsolete” (Boym, 2001: xvi).

We examine our dreams through the rhetorical constructs of
our representations. These visits
are not broad strokes of overarching themes but close investigations of the
minutiae of our aspirations. They
are narratives constructed in-between our personal desires and the desires of
the social whole. They touch us at
the deepest personal level while allowing us a sense of belonging to a larger
collective that craves a similar experience.

The combination of paintings or photography with
ornamentation, toys, faux wilderness elements and other romanticized
representations, is an opportunity to layer these nostalgic artifacts and
over-saturate the viewer with this sense of longing. To this we add our own visions of hybrid or affected
creatures within or without the backdrop of the landscape, the scenic vista, or
the panorama.

Raymond Williams describes nature as “the most complex word
in the language” because the concept of nature is so vitally enmeshed in the development
of human thought (1976: 219 & 221).
To speak uncritically of nature is to ignore a myriad of social
questions (Wilson, 1991: 12) and turn our backs on our oldest, dearest friend. Instead, let us use our unrealized
dreams and hope filled visions to better understand our daily realties and our
larger social responsibilities.

Boym, S., (2001), The
Future of Nostalgia, New York: Basic Books.

Stewart, S., (1993), On
Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the
Collection, Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Wilson, A., (1991), The
Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez,
Toronto: Between The Lines.

12 Point Buck is a collaborative duo comprised
of Lethbridge-based artist Leila Armstrong and Ontario-based artist Chai
Duncan. In the fall of 2007, Duncan and Armstrong became aware of a mutual
interest in exploring representations of nature as artifice. Subsequently, 12 Point
Buck has been incorporating
mass-produced and folk representations of nature into their work for the last several years. These
include toy replicas, statuary, decorations, scale models, and thrift store
landscapes.